He called for Zhu Quanxing, commander of the third battalion in charge of the main attack, and asked:
"How long will it take to capture Wuzhou?"
"It depends on when it lights up. []" Zhu Quanxing.
"What about after the light comes on?"
"The whole city can be occupied in one hour even with artillery fire preparations." Zhu Quanxing looked at his watch. "The troops have been deployed and are now taking turns to rest."
"Okay, you wait for my order. Depending on the situation, we have to attack tonight."
"It's difficult to coordinate troops at night, and large-unit operations are a bit risky."
"I'm afraid there's no reason for us to be slow on this matter." Zhu Mingxia handed him the information compiled by the intelligence officers during the prisoner interrogation, "Xiong Wencan will probably die together - if he does it, we will have no choice but to retreat. It’s law.”
"Okay, I'll go back and make preparations." Zhu Quanxing, "However, attacking at night is very risky, and these are the quarter moons, and the brightness at night is extremely low, making observation and shooting very difficult. It would be better to do it properly. The attack started in the early morning.”
There are great risks in organizing large-scale mobile operations at night. Even for the Fubo Army, the number one "elite soldier" in this time and space, unforeseen situations will occur every time a night combat drill is organized. Getting lost is the most common situation.
Zhu Mingxia weighed it again and again, but still couldn't make up his mind. To be honest, taking Wuzhou at night is very risky. It is easy to enter the city, but it becomes a problem when you arrive in the city: the streets are dark and there are no street signs. The troops lack lighting equipment, and lighting torches into the city may cause a fire. Very big. Only the maps provided by the Intelligence Bureau can be used for reference. It is difficult to identify ourselves and the enemy at night, and there are a large number of broken troops in the city...
If Xiong Wencan took this opportunity to set fire, it would be too late to escape.
Zhu Mingxia was hesitating when suddenly a correspondent came to report: The scouts discovered that the enemies of Wuzhou had dug open the east-west gates.
"What? Are you planning to break out?"
Although the strategy of banqueting all the wealthy families failed to work, the action of expelling women, children, old and young was launched. The defenders began to drive the people away from house to house, following the superior's instructions in advance: the strong men were driven to one side, and the women, children, old and weak were driven to the east and west gates.
At first, they were separated into young men. Later, because the officers and soldiers who were carrying out the expulsion work were intent on taking advantage of the opportunity to plunder, they could not care about these "things" at all. They simply drove all men, women, and children to the gates of both sides of the city. Because the man was worried about the safety of his wife and parents, he did not dare to care about his property, so he walked out together with the crowd.
Expelling the people from the city was just an excuse for the guest troops to take the opportunity to plunder, so order soon became chaotic. Some took the opportunity to rape women, and some killed people in order to rob property. Many people brought soft clothes with them, but they were stopped and searched by the soldiers. Some people found it troublesome, so they thrust their swords into the street and called the people passing by out of the city to "present treasures." Anyone who refused to take out his belongings would be stabbed in the street. If he met a young woman, he would be dragged behind and raped in the street. The sound of crying on the street shook, and I felt pity when I heard it.
The Governor's Yamen was already empty at this time. When all the staff learned that Governor Xiong had left the city, they immediately dispersed. The servants and clerks who were left behind in the government office plundered property and went to seek a way out for themselves. At the gate of the government office, rebel soldiers and urban foxes and rats came and went openly, looting the few remaining belongings.
Only some areas of the city still maintained order, and the streets had been closed with barricades and guarded by teams of strong men. No one is allowed to pass, no matter whether they are officials, civilians or soldiers, as long as they approach the street fence, they will immediately attract a barrage of arrows. Bloody heads were poked randomly on the street gates, warning any strangers who tried to approach.
Outside several official warehouses and government offices, troops from the city's Zhuangban, Wuzhou Naval Battalion and Guards Station formed a warning circle to drive away the rioters and mobs who intended to plunder.
Most of the soldiers in the Wuzhou Naval Battalion were from Wuzhou, and many of their families even lived in Wuzhou City. This time women, children, the elderly and the weak left the city, and many family members of the soldiers in the Naval Battalion were among them. Since the beginning of the war, Chang Qingyun, who knew that the Wuzhou Navy had no chance of winning, suggested that all warships in the naval camp be filled with sand and gravel and scuttled at the mouth of the Guijiang River, leaving only a few ships to transport grain from Guilin. As a result, the Wuzhou Naval Battalion suddenly became in name only and was driven as infantry.
Xiong Wencan in Wuzhou City relies on guest troops transferred from Guangxi, especially the wolf soldiers who have always had poor military discipline. The local defenders were instead viewed as "useless". The pay was meager, and he was often sent to do hard work as a handyman. Therefore, the host-guest conflict between the Wuzhou garrison has always been fierce. Firefights between the host army and the guest army occurred from time to time. The two sides were like fire and water. This expulsion of the old and the weak from the city directly affected their families, and instantly aroused the already extremely tense emotions on both sides. The two sides continued to clash in various parts of the city.
This kind of confrontational mood of the local garrison was fully exploited by the local big households, and became the main force of the "anyway" plan planned by the big households in Wuzhou. With the help of these garrison, many places in the city could barely maintain order, and the people were not expelled. Some places that Luo Yangming "reminded" Australians will definitely want: public buildings such as county offices and official warehouses have also been protected. It was not looted by the rebels.
Yi Haoran was walking down the street with a dozen servants and soldiers, his swords unsheathed and his guns loaded, but no one dared to make any noise along the way. Seeing the chaos in the city, my heart ached. However, there was nothing he could do at this moment. The officialdom in the city had collapsed, and no one was in charge of the city defense affairs anymore. It was heard that the Cangwu County Magistrate had hanged himself in the lobby in despair, and the whereabouts of the Wuzhou Magistrate were unknown. Many residences, temples and temples were looted by rioters and mobs. He is just a staff master. Apart from Jiang Suo and a dozen people around him, there is no one left at his disposal.
Right now, there was no other option but to get out of the city as quickly as possible. Chang Qingyun had already taken the first step, so he had no choice but to escape quickly.
The expelled people crowded in a dark crowd from Xijiang Gate along the streets to the Longevity Palace in the center of the city. Yi Haoran knew that if handled improperly, a stampede would easily occur. When he was in Liaodong in the past, he had seen several fleeing crowds. He ran away in a panic, trampling to death and injuring many people. But at this moment he has no ability to maintain order. He could only ask his men to walk along the wall to avoid being scattered by the crowd.
The rebels on the street stared at the team with red eyes, looking to see if there was any more money to be made. Although Yi Haoran was dressed shabbily, he was surrounded by soldiers and servants Hu Song, who attracted much attention. With the help of his soldiers and servants, he threatened the rebels with swords and guns to give way, and finally he was not pulled out to "offer treasures" in the street.
The crowd walked slowly, one step at a time, and slowly passed through the city gate, which was only half open. Nearly 20,000 people walked for about an hour and a half before they all walked out of the city gate. Seeing that everyone had left the city, the soldiers guarding the city immediately closed the city gate.
Some of the people who left the city had relatives in the suburbs and countryside whom they could seek refuge with, so they dispersed. However, many people have nowhere to go, especially many women and children who have never traveled far. They are not allowed to leave the city at night, and they have never even left their homes. At this moment, he was driven out of the city in the middle of the night. It was pitch dark all around, and he couldn't tell the north from the south. He also heard that there were many thieves outside the city, and some were separated from their husbands, father and brothers. They were all terrified and had no idea what to do, so they could only gather outside the Wengcheng. As soon as the cold wind blows at night, a child cries, and the city is filled with cries.
When the defenders on the city saw many people, perhaps thousands in number, stranded outside Xijiang Gate, refusing to leave for a long time, a thousand generals shouted down the city.
"People below the city, listen, leave the city gate quickly, or else we will release arrows."
After shouting several times, the crowd remained indifferent, and a dozen archers fired a round at the city. Several people were killed and injured immediately, and they slowly dispersed amid the overwhelming wailing and crying.
The observation post set up on Bangshan Mountain saw this scene through night vision telescopes. More than 10,000 people were found leaving the city through Xijiang Gate. These old, weak, women and children are now homeless refugees. They form a long queue one kilometer long under the West Wall of Wuzhou on the edge of the Guijiang River. The pontoon bridge leading to the other side of the Guijiang River had long been destroyed by the Fubo Army's artillery fire, and the trestle bridges on the moat in the south of the city were all demolished before the war. The refugees had nowhere to cross the river and had to go north.
"Battal Commander, there's a situation." A soldier who was confronting the Ming army outside Dayun Gate noticed something strange on the other side and immediately ran to report to Zhu Quanxing.
Seeing the dark crowd through the telescope, Zhu Quanxing was very nervous at first. The dense crowd shocked him. The Ming army would not have burned their brains and took the initiative to attack them. When I saw it clearly, I found that these people were all defenseless people, and they were all old, weak, women and children. A closer look showed that there were quite a lot of people. Zhu Quanxing could not count the specific number of this group of people, but he made a rough estimate and found that there were at least more than 10,000 people.
Although Zhu Quanxing has not yet made up his mind on how to deal with it, the troops deployed near Dayunmen are unable to deal with these refugees, and it is also necessary to consider whether the Ming army may be disguised among the refugees and wait for an opportunity to launch a surprise attack.
"Send a signal immediately and bring in the battalion reserve team!" Zhu Quanxing issued the order, "At the same time, report to the front!"
When will Dr. Zhong light up the technology tree of the radio station? He really needs a radio station now.
Compared with Zhu Quanxing who was at a loss in the northern position of the city, although Zhu Mingxia did not see the dark crowd, he soon learned the news that a large number of refugees were leaving the city.
He was able to get the news from the forward sentry so quickly only because of the communication efficiency of the communication troops.
On the Wuzhou battlefield, the Fubo Army experimented with many new tactics. Battlefield communications is one of the important subjects.
The elders can certainly boast that they have the communication technology of Top Star Technology, but in actual application, these things brought by another time and space are too precious, and it is very difficult to copy them technically. Therefore, except for the navy, which is slightly more luxurious and whose battleships can distribute radio stations, the Fubo Army's communications basically relied on walking and shouting for a long time.
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Next update: Volume 7 - Guangzhou Governance Chapter 322
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